Chip Kidd Philosophies

As I was skimming through this week's Mcquade Mcquade readings I found myself consumed by the interview with Chip Kidd, the graphic designer most notably known for his skeletal Jurassic Park dinosaur on the cover of Michael Crichton's book. He has a fantastic outlook on design principles and is wonderfully easy going when it comes to his own work. He stated that rules of design are never set in stone and he even breaks his own rules when the mood is right. As a words and images class we have been told all semester to discard what we love because (most of the time) it is what we love that stands in our way of better revisions. But he said he occassionally breaks this rule and goes back to that first idea thinking, "Hmm, the reason this is the first thing you thought of is that this in the best thing."


When asked how he avoids repeating himself after being a designer for so long he said, "I don't avoid repeating myself. I rip myself off all the time." I worry, sometimes, about being too repetitious with my work. Obviously I don't have enough experience to where this has become a problem yet but what if it is in the future? It's always nice to know people deal with similar issues/fears I face everyday.


The best part of the interview was when he said, "The most tiring--and yet most rewarding--experiences are when you have to keep redoing it again and again, but what you end up with is actually the best thing." Thank god I'm not the only person constantly revising every little piece i create.